(Posted 7:30 a.m., April 12)
Wolverines claim gold medal in Division 4 provincial basketball championships
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

Joseph Abdelnour scored a game high 16 points in the Gloucester Wolverines' 59-48 win over the Hamilton Wildcats in the Division 4 provincial championships on Sunday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

The Gloucester Wolverines showed why they deserve to be ranked among the top teams in the province after winning the Division 4 Major Atom provincial championship in impressive fashion on the weekend.

The Wolverines went into the provincial championships with somewhat of a chip on their shoulder. Despite accumulating an impressive win-loss record heading into the post season, they were seeded five in the Division 4 playoffs which would place them 41st overall.

One of the reasons they were seeded so low is because they didn't play in any out of town tournaments this season.

Unfazed by the lack of respect, the Wolverines were determined to prove that the officials at Ontario Basketball had made a mistake in placing them in the fourth division.

They started by dominating the other teams in their pool. After beating IEM Aurora 69-58 in their tournament opener on Friday, they downed the Caledon Cougars 52-40 Saturday morning and made short work of CYO St. Catherine 54-41 in the afternoon to qualify for the semi-finals.

In the semis, they beat Blessed Sacrament #2 55-36, to earn a berth in the gold medal game against the Hamilton Wildcats.

Junior basketball is run under Fair Play rules which dictate that every kid plays an equal portion of the game. Under the rule, teams are divided into two groups of players which alternate through the course of a game.

In Sunday's final, the Wolverines' first team made up of Daymon Williams, Jessie Azangi, Shubham Nayyar, Gabriel Anderson, Lloyd Pandi and Joseph Abdelnour, outscored their opponents by a margin of 34-24, while the second group of players made up of Noah Holder, Caleb Dagenais, Taj Palmer, Cameron Ing, Devon Gall and Josh McGrath, outscored their opponents by a margin of 25-24.

The first team gave the Wolverines an 11-7 lead after the first four minutes of the opening quarter, which the second team managed to widen to 19-12. The pattern was repeated in the second quarter as both squads outscored their opposite numbers. By halftime the Wolverines had opened up a 13-point advantage, up 32-19.

The Wildcats' first team managed to narrow the deficit to 12 points in the opening minutes of the third quarter, but the Wolverines second squad managed to get it back to 13 in the latter half of the stanza.

After Gloucester's first squad widened the gap to 16 midway in the fourth quarter, the second team bent but didn't break in the final four minutes and the team walked off the court with a 59-48 win and the gold medals.

Abdelnour led the way for the Wolverines on the scoresheet with a game high 16 points, while no fewer than 10 other players factored into the scoring. Palmer and Nayyar had seven points each and Williams had six to go with a half-dozen or more assists.

Following the medal presentation, Wolverines' head coach Merrick Palmer talked about the team's motivation level heading into the tournament.

"We wanted to play in a higher division, but we were seeded here so our goal was to show the selection people that they had made a mistake and we wanted to represent Ottawa," said Palmer who does double duty as the GCBA's technical director.

With the team's first provincial gold medal under their belts, Palmer is hoping for even better things to happen in the future. His goal is to keep the group together and build on what they've accomplished to date.

""I think we've built a solid foundation, now we want to build a fancy house on it. The kids have the fundamentals. Next we want to teach them to use their creativity on the court and once that happens they'll be unstoppable," said Palmer.

Should the team remain intact, the sky is the limit. Second Division in a year or two is not out of the question, or even the First Division by the time they reach midget. Only time will tell.

Members of the Gloucester Wolverines Major Atom AA team pose for a photo after winning the Division 4 provincial championship on Sunday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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